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 Given Naxos’ penchant for
complete editions, there seems to be a survey of instrumental works
by the Italian-German Ferruccio Busoni (left) gathering steam.
I greeted Volume One of his piano music (including the ambitious
Bach fugue-inspired Fantasia Contrappuntistica), played by
the accomplished German pianist Wolf Harden, on the pages of The
Straits Times with enthusiasm, and the latest volume finds me
satisfied in a different way. It is also refreshing to see Busoni’s
Bach transcriptions parted into separate CDs, instead of lumping all
of them together, which can be too much of a good thing.
Volume Two is devoted to Busoni’s
sets of variations for the piano. The two most important works are
the ubiquitious Chaconne in D minor (from Bach’s
unaccompanied Violin Partita No.2) and Variations on
Chopin’s Prélude in C minor. There are many excellent recordings
of the Chaconne – by Michelangeli, Cherkassky, Rubinstein,
Pletnev et al - and presumably this would not be the primary
interest for seeking this disc out. For certain, Harden dishes up a
technically sound reading that lacks nothing in good taste and
style. However characterisation seems to be short in supply and one
does not get that inexorable sense of the inevitable. A performance
should grip the listener and lead one through its peaks and troughs
before arriving with a breathtaking finality, as if saying “Wow,
what a journey!”
One supposes inspirational sparks of
this sort are rare in integrales of this kind, which is the
trade-off for completeness’ sake. There aren’t many recordings of
the Chopin Variations, simply because this isn’t Busoni’s
most memorable or distinctive music. It is undoubtedly well crafted
but even the overlong Rachmaninov Op.22 set on the same C minor
Prélude of Chopin (Op.28 No.20) is superior with regards to
invention and sense of pacing. So don’t blame the pianist, blame the
composer! Anyhow, Harden does deliver the goods in a suitably
virtuosic performance with a self-assured authority.
 Wolf Harden
(right) may be better
known to record collectors as the pianist in the Fontenay Trio and
sometime accompanist for violinist Takako Nishizaki. One can sample
his solo work in fine performances of Schumann’s Humoreske
and Reger’s Bach Variations, a Naxos recording from the early
1990s that helped cement the fledgling label’s reputation as a
serious and high-flying entity. His Busoni’s recordings further his
cause as an important interpreter of German Romantic music.
The other sets of variations
chronicle Busoni’s progress as a composer. Some belong to Busoni’s
juvenilia, including the Theme and Variations in C (a
6-year-old’s work), Inno Variations (from 2 years later) –
harmless fluff that do not yet point to future greatness. More
accomplished are the 18-year-old’s Etude en forme de variations
– a craftsman in the making - and Variations on the German
folksong Kommt ein Vogel geflogen, which is the sort of fun
composers get into imitating and parodying other composers.
Mendelssohn, Chopin, Wagner and Scarlatti all get their firmly
tongue-in-cheek tributes.
The title Complete Works for
Cello and Piano is somewhat misleading as this would mean that
Busoni’s complete oeuvre for this genre comprises just three
works, totaling slightly more than half the duration of the disc.
The balance is filled by Ottorino Respighi’s Adagio con
variazioni, the original form of a likeable work that is better
known in its orchestral guise, and Busoni’s own transcriptions of
Bach’s Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue and Liszt’s minute
Valse oubliée No.1.
Of the original
cello works by Busoni, the 5-movement Kleine Suite (Little
Suite) from 1886 is charming although derivative, almost a
pastiche of a Baroque dance suite á la – you guessed it -
Bach. There isn’t that modernistic and brooding Busoni of his piano
works in evidence but its two slow movements hold enough lyrical
material to be engaging enough.
 Kultaselle
is a set of ten variations on a pensive Finnish folksong of the same
title, not unlike the more familiar Norwegian ones Edvard Grieg
thrived upon. The piece even sounds like something Grieg would have
written, complete with the ubiquitous three-note motif to be found
in his own Cello Sonata and Piano Concerto. The
Serenata is yet another rather lyrical transcription, but of a
dance-like movement in the slow-fast-slow form from a Busoni suite
for clarinet.
The Italian duo
of cellist Francesco Pepicelli and pianist Angelo Pepicelli
(left) do sound
convincing in most part and their sensible juxtaposition of items
within this disc – starting with Respighi, Bach, moving on to
Busoni, the quasi-Grieg and ending with Liszt - does no harm
whatsoever. This is surprisingly easy listening despite the rather
pedantic title. Ironically, I suspect most listeners would be more
attracted to this recording by the Respighi and transcriptions, but
if that alone draws attention to the attractive but slight Busoni
items, it can’t be a bad thing.
Tou Liang
still hopes to play Busoni’s Carmen Fantasy for piano, but
unless he rolls the clock back twenty years or magically transforms
into Lang Lang, he can only satisfy himself by just listening to it.
In Singapore, Naxos CDs may be bought most cheaply from Sing Music
at #02-75 Lucky Plaza . Call Doris for help at (+65)62358960. They
also take multiple orders and can supply Hyperion and many other
small labels. 10% discount if you mention The Flying Inkpot.
Readers' Comments
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365:
12.12.1998 © Chia Han-Leon
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